George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 

COLONEL  FLOWERS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/dutyinterestiden1861bell 


election 


Dtttif  nnit  3ntrrrst  Sknlirnl  in  iijr  Rrsrnt  (Crisis. 


A SERMON 


PREACHED  IX 


ALL  SOULS’  CHURCH, 


SUNDAY  MORNING,  APRIL  14th,  1861, 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS. 


NEW  YORK  : 

WYNKOOP,  HALLENBECK  & THOMAS,  PRINTERS, 
No.  113  Fuiton  Street. 

1861. 


- 


THE  FLOWERS  COLLECTION 


SERMON. 


“ Men's  hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking  aftei • those  things  which 
are  coming  on  the  earth." — Luke  xxi : 26. 

The  introduction  of  our  sacred  religion  was  attended 
and  followed  by  most  distressing  events.  Our  Lord  pre- 
pared the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  immediate  disciples  for 
the  perils  of  ease,  property,  and  life,  which  were  to  dis- 
tinguish the  generation  that  founded  the  Church,  openly 
predicting  universal  perplexity  and  distress,  hut  exhorting 
them  that  when  all  other  “ men’s  hearts  were  failing  them 
for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things  which  were 
coming  on  the  earth,”  they  should  “ look  up  and  lift  up 
their  heads,”  for  “ their  redemption  was  drawing  nigh.” 

We  are  so  little  used,  in  these  modern  times,  to  suf- 
fering for  our  principles — so  little  accustomed  to  he 
called  to  long  and  exhausting  sacrifices  for  our  religion — 
that  we  are  all  somewhat  out  of  sympathy  with  those 
who,  from  the  first,  have  done  the  work  of  pioneering  the 
cause  of  truth,  justice,  and  humanity  in  the  world.  The 
long  period  of  peace  and  prosperity  we  have  enjoyed  has 
taught  us  to  flatter  ourselves  that  the  time  was  gone  by 
when  men  were  likely  again  to  he  called  on  to  suffer 
the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  the  interruption  of  their  domes- 
tic comfort,  the  imperilling  of  their  fortunes,  for  the  sake 


4 


of  any  of  the  permanent  interests  of  society.  That  was 
very  well  in  Revolutionary  times,  or  Puritan  times,  or 
Reformation  times,  or  Apostolic  times  ; and  we  have  no 
praises  too  strong,  no  gratitude  too  deep,  to  convey  our 
sense  of  the  glorious  merits  of  those  who  counted  their 
lives  not  dear,  and  their  possessions  dross  and  dung,  when 
the  great  principles  of  humanity,  order,  justice,  piety, 
summoned  them  to  risk  all  in  their  defense.  But  these  are 
modern  times  ; times  when  agriculture  and  commerce  and 
manufactures  are  the  great  interests  ; times  when  schools 
and  churches  are  the  main  bulwarks  of  truth  and  morali- 
ty, and  when  we  are  expecting  to  have  our  duty  and  our 
principles  somehow  made  consistent,  if  not  coincident, 
with  our  interest  and  prosperity ; and  so,  in  the  deepest 
view,  but  only  in  that,  they  are. 

I desire  to  speak  with  true  respect  of  the  material  inter- 
-ests  of  society.  The  real  progress  oi  the  world  depends 
very  much  on  peace  and  prosperous  industry,  and  wide- 
spread, because  safe  and  rewarding,  commerce.  Christiani- 
ty has  immensely  advanced  the  wealth  and  comfort  of 
society,  and  the  riches  and  peace  of  the  world  have  repaid 
religion  by  munificent  support  of  her  cause.  It  is  not 
necessarily  a mean  and  selfish  instinct  which  makes  us  so 
f sensitive  to  the  prospects  of  our  material  interests.  The 
bread,  safety,  and  happiness  of  our  wives  and  children ; 
the  prosperity  of  our  social,  civil,  and  humane  institutions  ; 
the  support  of  religion  itself;  the  supply  of  labor  and  food 


5 


to  the  masses  of  the  people — all  are  finally  dependent  upon 
the  undisturbed  condition  of  trade,  the  sound  basis  of 
monetary  affairs,  and  the  pacific  prospects  of  the  world. 
There  can  he  no  difference  among  sensible  men  as  to  the 
vast  importance  of  stability  in  the  industry  and  commer- 
cial and  fiscal  affairs  of  the  nation. 

Radically  and  truly  considered,  however,  there  is  no  con- 
flict between  the  moral  interests  of  society  and  its  material 
interests.  What  is  most  for  the  interest  of  piety  and  virtue 
is  most  for  the  interest  of  trade  and  commerce.  What 
best  serves  God  and  humanity,  best  serves  basket  and  store. 
Any  seeming  antagonism  here  is  not  real,  hut  due  only  to 
our  shortsightedness.  It  is  proved  indisputably  that  public 
morality  and  piety  are  in  the  highest  degree  favorable  to 
public  wealth,  and  that  the  most  moral  and  religious  nations 
are  the  richest.  It  is  with  moral  and  spiritual  truths,  as  it 
is  with  scientific  and  economical  truths — they  always  seem 
to  threaten  disaster  when  they  first  break  upon  the  notice 
of  the  world,  but  soon  show  themselves  to  he  the  guardians 
and  most  efficient  promoters  of  the  real  interests  which  it 
is  predicted  they  are  swiftly  to  ruin.  Thus,  the  introduc- 
tion of  machine  labor  was  going  to  ruin  the  industry  of 
England ; and  the  abolition  ot  the  Corn  Laws  was  going  to 
ruin  the  British  landholders  ; the  invention  of  steam  power 
was  going  to  make  horses  of  no  value  ; the  education  of 
the  lower  classes  was  going  to  sow  dangerous  political  dis- 
contents among  the  people  ; the  abolition  of  a religious 


G 


establishment  was  going  to  prostrate  Christianity.  But 
nothing  of  this  happened  ; for,  when  things  are  right  in 
principle,  they  always  work  right  in  practice,  after  a little 
time  ; and  when  things  are  wrong  in  principle,  they  always 
work  wrong  in  practice,  sooner  or  later.  It  is  right  in 
principle  to  economize  labor,  to  do  things  in  the  cheapest 
and  most  efficient  way,  to  let  in  light,  to  discuss  all  matters 
with  freedom  and  thoroughness,  to  do  justice,  to  tell  the 
truth,  to  insist  on  ecpiity,  to  maintain  law  and  order,  and 
uphold  public  rights ; and,  therefore,  carrying  out  these 
principles  in  trade,  commerce,  labor,  in  politics,  morals,  and 
religion,  is  always  safe  and  beneficent,  and  favorable  to 
stability ; and  nothing  else  is.  To  favor  imperfection,  know- 
ing it  to  be  such;  to  encourage  hand-labor  against  machine- 
labor  ; to  suppress  intellectual  and  moral  light,  as  if  it  were 
a foe  ; to  cover  up  known  wrong ; to  sophisticate  ourselves 
for  the  sake  of  immediate  interest — is  as  fatal  to  permanent 
well-being  as  it  is  contrary  to  sound  principle  and  good 
sense. 

No  doubt  every  great  step  forward  in  science,  art, 
social  economy,  in  politics,  morals,  and  religion,  injures  the 
material  interest  of  some  class  whose  prosperity  is  built 
upon  the  superseded  policy.  The  discovery  and  introduc- 
tion of  luminous  gas  has  seriously  damaged  the  whaling 
interest.  Elementary  education  has  become  so  general 
with  us,  that  a class  of  persons  who  formerly  made  their 
living  by  reading  to  the  illiterate  and  writing  their  letters, 


7 


a class  still  known  in  some  European  countries,  is  extin- 
guished. The  turnpike  property  throughout  the  North  has 
lost  all  its  value  through  the  introduction  of  railroads. 
And  every  day,  science,  morals,  religion,  as  they  advance, 
threaten  some  interest  based  upon  past  ignorance  of  their 
highest  laws.  All  the  gaming  houses  of  England  and 
France  complained  of  the  fanaticism  which  banished  their 
once  open  tables  to  the  petty  principalities  of  Germany ; 
while  the  lottery  business,  lately  so  prosperous  and  flourish- 
ing  in  this  country,  shrieked  as  it  fell  dead  under  the  moral 
sentiment  of  our  Northern  States.  Does  any  one  doubt  the 
vast  material  gain  accruing  to  society  from  these  steps, 
fatal  as  they  were  to  special  interests,  which  themselves 
were  poisonous  to  the  State  ? 

So  English  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies,  which,  un- 
doubtedly, seriously  injured  the  interest  of  the  great  pro- 
prietors, and  diminished  the  exported  sugar  crop,  it  is  now 
demonstrated  has  actually  increased  vastly  the  well-being 
of  the  general  population  of  the  islands,  the  amount  of  their 
products,  and  the  moral  character  of  the  people.  Being- 
right  in  principle,  it  must  inevitably  prove  right  in  prac- 
tice, and  this  was  sure  to  appear  after  a fair  chance  was 
given  to  the  experiment.  At  this  moment,  the  total  ex- 
ports of  the  British  West  Indies,  excepting  Jamaica,  ruined 
before  emancipation  begun,  exceed  by  seventy-seven  mil- 
lions of  pounds  of  sugar  those  of  its  most  prosperous 
slave-labor  year,  while  its  imports  from  England  and  Amer- 


8 


ica  have  advanced  from  8,840,000  to  ] 4,000,000,  proving, 
in  the  most  satisfactory  manner,  the  pecuniary  advantage 
of  pursuing  the  humane  and  Christian  policy  of  emanci- 
pation. 

It  is,  therefore,  a grand  mistake  to  imagine  that  our 
duty  and  our  interest  are  ever  permanently  at  war  ; or  that 
we  can  he  too  just,  or  too  humane,  or  too  right,  or  too 
God-fearing  for  our  welfare.  Temporarily  our  advance  in 
scientific,  economic,  political,  or  moral  wisdom,  may  cost 
us  some  serious  sacrifices  ; but  only  to  save  us  from  far 
more  permanent  calamities.  It  is  sticking  to  falsehoods  as 
if  they  were  truths  ; adhering  to  policies  that  are  behind  the 
age  and  the  times  ; attempting  to  back  up  blunders  and  mis- 
takes ; to  whitewash  what  is  black,  and  brazen  out  what 
is  wrong — that  causes  the  downfall  of  industries,  disturbs 
trade,  ruins  commerce,  and  upsets  society  and  government. 
Scientific,  economical,  moral,  political,  religious  truths,  all 
hang  together.  There  is  no  war  among  them.  They  sup- 
port, uphold,  and  illustrate  each  other;  and  it  is  only  error, 
mistake,  wrong,  darkness,  sin,  folly,  which  occasion  the 
disturbances  that  in  our  haste  we  attribute  to  the  fanatical 
progress  of  truth. 

It  is  idle  and  mischievous  to  think  of  the  material  and  the 
moral  interests  of  our  own  beloved  country  as  at  war  with 
each  other.  Nothing  immoral  can  be  for  our  interest. 
Our  people  generally  wish  to  do  what  is  just  and  right, 
and  as  a rule  they  believe  honesty  the  best  policy,  and  lm- 


9 


inanity  the  best  business.  They  have  grown  up,  certainly 
in  our  own  section  of  the  land,  under  the  conviction  that 
the  blessing  of  God  was  upon  their  industry,  trade,  and 
commerce ; and  that  their  material  prosperity  need  not 
hinder  their  fidelity  to  conscience  and  their  allegiance  to 
the  Almighty.  And  they  are  right  in  this  faith.  God  is 
on  the  side  of  justice.  Duty  is  rewarding.  Conscience  is 
a lamp  to  the  feet  of  the  wise  and  prudent.  Now  and  then 
it  leads  to  martyrdom  and  the  loss  of  all  that  is  commonly 
held  dear,  but  its  usual  light  falls  upon  the  path  of  safety 
and  success.  And  when  it  does  its  exceptional  work,  when 
it  kindles  the  faggots  of  the  confessor  and  the  saint,  or 
consumes  the  hero  in  the  heat  of  his  own  patriotic  zeal,  the 
flame  of  that  sacrifice  sheds  a benignant  illumination  over 
centuries  of  tolerance  and  of  security  purchased  at  this  no- 
ble rate.  There  can  be  no  greater  error  than  that  which 
supposes  that  the  great  names  or  the  marked  eras  of  suffer- 
ing for  conscience  and  principle  have  originated  in  a sub- 
lime disregard  of  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  society.  He- 
roes die  at  their  lonely  post — and  one  may  be  sacrificed 
this  very  day* — for  a punctilio  of  soldierly  duty  ; but  that 
punctilio  measures  the  hair-breadth  that  saves  the  national 
ship  from  going  to  pieces  on  the  rock  it  grazes.  Saints  go 
to  the  stake  for  a scruple  of  conscience  ; but  that  scruple 
weighs  mountains  in  the  scales  of  human  destiny,  and  the 
sufferings  it  exacts  vindicate  a policy  that  involves  the  in- 

* Fort  Sumter  and  Major  Anderson  were  supposed  to  be  still  under  fire  at  the  moment 
when  these  words  were  uttered 


10 


dependence,  the  self-government,  the  energy  and  spirit  of 
untold  generations.  A nation  goes  to  war  on  a preamble, 
or  on  some  nice  question  of  the  right  of  visitation,  or  on 
some  fine  point  of  honor.  Is  it  for  purely  imaginary  inter- 
ests, is  it  for  a salve  to  wounded  sensibility,  the  gratification 
of  passion  and  pride,  that  the  dreadful  arbitrament  of  war 
is  invoked  on  such  occasions?  No!  it  is  because  it  is 

/ 

rightly  felt  that  the  self-respect,  the  honor,  the  dignity  of 
a nation,  is  at  the  very  bottom  of  its  prosperity — that  to  lose 
confidence  in  the  country,  to  abate  loyal  feeling,  to  weaken 
national  pride,  is  to  put  at  peril  every  interest  of  trade, 
commerce,  and  industry — is  to  strike  at  the  root  of  stability, 
to  invite  foreign  contempt,  to  drive  away  capital  and  labor, 
to  dishearten  and  demoralize  youth,  to  rend  the  foundations 
of  morals  and  piety,  and  to  lessen  by  billions  the  produc- 
tive power  and  real  wealth  of  the  country.  The  prosperity 
of  a people  is  based  on  its  honest  pride  in  their  institutions, 
on  its  confidence  in  their  statesmen  and  rulers,  on  the  in- 
violability of  its  flag,  and  the  strength  and  stability  of  the 
public  credit.  Let  repudiation  either  of  oaths  of  office  or 
promises  to  pay,  find  favor  in  a State,  and  its  whole  people 
are  suddenly  struck  with  palsy.  What  a blow  is  given  to 
business,  when  it  becomes  doubtful  whether  the  very  Army 
and  Navy  of  a nation  can  be  trusted  with  the  honor  of  their 
own  standards ! What  an  element  of  demoralization  is  let 
loose,  when  casuistry  is  the  only  defence  which  gentlemen 
have  left  for  their  staggering  veracity  ! Who  will  trust  a 


11 


region,  where  its  first  men  have  a code  of  honor  peculiar 
to  their  own  latitude,  and  a course  of  behavior  that  can  be 
vindicated  only  from  their  point  of  view '?  Right-  and  wrong, 
truth  and  falsehood,  honor  and  dishonor,  are  not  matters  of 
latitude  and  longitude.  There  is  said  to  be  honor  among 
thieves,  but  it  never  stood  them  in  much  stead  at  the  bar 
of  justice,  or  in  the  money  market ; and  it  never  will.  Be 
sure  that  public  prosperity,  business  success,  stability  of 
fortune,  repose  on  fidelity  to  world-wide  principles  of  truth 
and  right,  and  not  on  fidelity  to  local  or  sectional  passions  and 
prejudices,  North  or  South,  East  or  West. 

I am  addressing  a commercial  congregation — men  who 
are  the  first  to  feel  the  effects  of  national  agitation ; and 
who  naturally  and  properly  dread  the  suspense,  the  want 
of  confidence,  and  the  interruption  of  trade,  produced  by 
any  terrible  crisis  in  public  affairs.  I know  very  well,  that 
it  is  not  a little  more  or  less  of  domestic  splendor,  or  per- 
sonal comfort,  a few  more  hundreds  or  thousands  in  the 
strong-box  ; a rise  or  fall  of  ten  or  even  fifty  per  cent,  in 
stocks  and  mortgages,  that  appals  their  hearts.  It  is  the 
sickening  uncertainty  how  they  are  to  meet  their  engage- 
ments ; how  in  a totally  changed  state  of  things  they  are 
to  fulfill  promises  made  in  the  best  faith,  and  to  carry  out 
large  plans,  from  which  there  is  no  retreat,  formed  under 
other  circumstances.  With  enormous  rents,  heavy  stocks 
of  goods,  large  foreign  obligations,  and  a sudden  and  wide 
stagnation  of  business,  what  but  solicitude  can  fill  their 


12 


souls  ? Who  can  wonder  at  “ men’s  hearts  failing  them 
for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things  which  are  coming 
on  the  earth”?  It  is  an  honorable,  not  a selfish  anxiety  ; 
and  I wish  to  God  I could  say  it  were  unnecessary,  or  like- 
ly soon  to  pass  away.  But,  I beg  you  to  remember  that 
just  the  creditable  anxiety  you  feel  as  merchants,  to  pre- 
serve your  honor  untarnished,  to  uphold  your  credit  and 
meet  your  engagements — a feeling  to  which  you  would  glad- 
ly sacrifice  any  present  convenience,  or  even  private  fortune — 
is  the  very  same  anxiety  which  the  country  or  the  Gov- 
ernment feels  towards  its  own  honor  and  credit — as  the 
basis  of  our  complete  future  prosperity  as  a people.  If 
you  know  that  your  honor  and  credit  are  the  conditions  of 
all  your  success  or  hope  as  merchants,  how  much  more 
must  the  Government  or  the  nation  know  that  its  honor 
and  credit  are  the  conditions  of  our  general  well-being, 
and  of  our  stability  and  growth  as  a people  ? You  may  be 
called  on  as  a class  to  suffer  more  than  any  other  for  the 
present  year  or  the  next  five  years,  in  order  that  the  nation, 
as  a nation,  may  not  forfeit  its  ability  to  protect  your  com- 
merce and  favor  your  trade  for  generations  to  come.  The 
commerce  and  trade — not  of  this  spring  or  next  fall,  not  of 
this  year  or  next  year — but  of  the  next  hundred  years,  is  im- 
perilled. If  doubts  of  the  possibility  of  republican  and  dem- 
ocratic institutions  are  encouraged  and  fortified — if  radical 
suspicion  of  the  theory  of  our  Constitution  is  fostered — if 
faith  in  the  honor  of  our  high  public  officers,  if  confidence 


in  our  army  and  navy,  are  destroyed  abroad  and  at  home — 
then  “farewell — along  farewell  to  all  our  greatness,”  com- 
mercial and  political.  We  had  better  freely  sacrifice  our 
fortunes  and  our  lives,  than  allow  the  pestilent  principles 
to  prevail  which  have  already  struck  disgrace  upon  our 
character,  and  which,  if  not  stopped  in  their  career,  will 
make  another  Mexico  of  our  country.  Your  warehouses 
will  indeed  be  converted  into  deserted  palaces,  and  your 
docks  into  empty  and  sailless  ditches — if  the  arm  of  the 
Government  is  not  nerved  with  your  confidence,  and  strung 
with  the  fibres  of  your  loyalty  and  sympathy. 

It  is  our  first  duty  to  look  our  affairs  directly  in  the  face. 
They  are  too  serious  and  solemn  for  partisan  feelings  or  per- 
sonal interests  to  sway  our  judgment,  or  color  our  speech. 
War  has  been  made  upon  the  General  Government  by  a 
conspiracy  of  rebellious  States.  I will  not  say  that  these 
States  may  not  think  themselves  right  in  their  course.  I 
even  dare  to  say  that  they  do  so — for  I believe  that  a peo- 
ple who  can  persuade  themselves  that  it  is  honorable,  pru- 
dent, politic,  necessary,  democratic,  or  Christian,  to  live  by 
slave  labor,  and  that  Slavery  is  a blessing  and  a divine  insti- 
tution, may  persuade  themselves  of  any  thing  most  false 
and  injurious;  may  persuade  themselves  that  secession  is  a 
doctrine  not  absolutely  incompatible  with  the  very  idea  of 
government;  that  resignation  on  the  eve  of  battle  in  a 
soldier  is  not  equivalent  to  desertion  ; that  the  use  of  a high 
confidential  public  station  for  disarming  the  Government 


14 


whose  pay  it  receives,  is  a feat  to  be  boasted  of  and  feted ; 
and  that  the  moral  judgment  of  the  civilized  world  may  be 
victoriously  withstood  ! Allowing,  therefore,  perfect  sin- 
cerity and  the  clearest  conscience  on  the  part  of  the  rebel- 
lious States,  now  at  war  upon  our  flag — the  question  for  us 
is,  what  self-preservation,  what  humanity,  what  wisdom 
and  justice  and  mercy  demand  of  us  to  do?  I believe 
that  the  very  foundations  of  order,  prosperity,  self-govern- 
ment, liberty,  morality,  and  religion,  are  rocking  to  their 
ruin  under  the  false  theories  and  pernicious  policy  of  the 
assailants  of  our  Government  and  their  abettors,  and  that 
it  is  no  longer  a party  question,  or  a question  of  expe- 
diency, but  a matter  of  direct  and  most  pressing  necessity, 
to  spring  with  united  hearts  and  determined  hands  to  the 
defence  of  law  and  the  maintenance  of  National  authority. 
We  have  reached  the  point  when  National  demoralization 
must  either  end,  or  must  end  us.  The  key-stone  of  all  sta- 
bility, sense  of  security,  confidence  in  each  other,  honor 
and  truth,  is  already  loosened  ; and  if  it  falls,  the  complete 
arch  of  our  civil,  social,  economic,  and  domestic  peace  and 
prosperity  will  be  in  ruins.  To  uphold  the  Government — 
be  it  in  whose  hands  it  may — is  to  fix  this  key-stone.  It 
is  worth  a thousand  millions  to  keep  it  from  yielding 
another  hair.  It  is  worth  a hundred  thousand  lives  to  ce- 
ment it  in  its  place.  Each  man  of  us  had  better  give  ten 
years  of  his  remnant  of  days,  and  half  his  fortune,  than  per- 
mit one  jot  or  tittle  more  of  the  national  authority  to  pass 
away.  For  if  it  is  successfully  withstood  and  broken,  our 


15 


property  is  a fiction,  and  our  lives  a spoil.  Bad  men  are 
now  on  the  watch  to  spring  at  our  mints  and  vaults,  our 
forts  and  arsenals.  We  know  not  how  much  we  owe  it  to 
the  vigilance  of  our  police  that  violence  has  not  already 
polluted  our  own  Northern  streets.  Our  real  danger  will 
disappear  only  when  the  sickly  doubt  of  our  true  policy, 
and  the  paralyzing  fear  of  immediate  losses,  have  passed 
from  our  still  loyal  States.  When  we  are  thoroughly  and 
overwhelmingly  united  in  our  patriotism,  in  our  allegiance 
to  law  and  order ; when  we  have  drowned  partisan 
clamors  and  jealousies  in  a common  tide  of  devotion  to 
public  duty,  and  risen  to  the  greatness  of  the  emergency, 
as  one  involving  every  material,  social,  and  moral  interest — 
then  our  day  of  greatest  peril  will  be  over,  and  the  con- 
test will  be  immediately  narrowed  to  its  smallest  dimensions. 
The  worst  thing  now  to  be  dreaded  is  irresolution,  timidity, 
and  division.  We  must  no  longer  wait  for  each  other.  If  the 
Border  States  are  in  doubt,  they  must  choose  between  those 
who  are  themselves  already  fully  decided  on  both  sides  ot 
them,  and  be  either  the  open  friends  or  the  open  enemies  ol 
the  Constitution  and  the  Government.  We  have  no  business 
any  longer  to  wait  on  their  suspense.  Our  enemies  are 
in  earnest ; they  are  united,  and  energetic,  and  resolved. 
They  must  find  us  equally  so,  or  our  Capital  will  soon  be  a 
foreign  capital,  and  our  Nation  a slaveocracy. 

It  is  a sad  day,  my  brethren,  when  Christian  duty 
makes  us  militant,  and  denies  us  the  blessed  privilege  ot 
breathing  peace.  It  is  a melancholy  hour  when  even  the 


16 


house  of  God  and  the  temple  ol  Christ  becomes  a sort  of 
fortress  and  battle-field.  But  I wish  to  know  nothing  of 
that  kind  of  religion  which  will  not  defend  the  sacred 
interests  of  society,  with  all  the  power,  physical  and  moral, 
which  God  and  nature  have  supplied.  My  own  enemies  I 
will  forgive,  and  continually  turn  to  them  the  other  cheek  ; 
but  the  enemies  of  humanity — the  enemies  of  all  order, 
truth,  and  virtue — the  enemies  of  my  country,  I will  not, 
upon  any  theory  of  peace  or  meekness,  unresistingly  suffer 
to  achieve  their  guilty  purposes,  so  long  as  there  is  a drop  of 
blood  in  my  heart,  a fibre  of  muscle  in  my  arm,  or  a note 
of  warning  in  my  voice  ! 

Our  strife,  alas!  is  with  our  brethren;  but  when  a 
brother  strikes  at  a mother’s  heart,  filial  duty  takes  prece- 
dence of  fraternal  obligation.  We  have  been  forbearing, 
patient,  slow  to  anger — most  anxious  for  peace.  But  we  are 
not  men,  much  less  Christians,  if  wTe  suffer  the  great  fabric 
of  our  American  civilization,  the  great  inheritance  of  our 
Constitution  and  Union,  to  lapse  into  ruin,  from  intes- 
tine treachery  or  local  passion — without  a tremendous  effort 
to  save  it.  God  grant  us  something  of  that  mingled  “ good- 
ness and  severity  ” which  illustrates  His  own  merciful 
but  vigorous  government.  Save  us  from  cowardice,  irre- 
solution, and  division ! Direct  us  the  shortest  road  to 
peace,  and  spare  us  the  awful  necessity  of  rebaptizing  our 
liberties  in  rivers  of  blood — and  the  more  terrible  calamity 
of  losing  them  from  supineness,  selfishness,  and  infidelity 
to  truth,  humanity,  conscience,  and  God. 


Date  Due 


- 

Form  335— 40M— 6-39— S 

973.795  B448V  363714 


O 


